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Published: August 12th 2007
Well hello my avid fans! (all one of you-Mum!?)
Since I last updated, I have been to Malaysia and out again, consisting of a little two week blast. Starting in Kuala Lumpur, a place I have always wanted to go only to say the name. It's very modern and technologically advanced but in rather a slap-dash kind of way. There's such a mixture of new and old, clean and well...dirty/scummy, but somehoe it all collaborates together to be an urban jungle that we became very familiar with. We had to as we became a bit stuck there, as I had a peronal challenge of not being able to get any money out. Apparently my bank likes to do surprise security checks which I must say is very noble of them, but a slight warning would have been nice before I'd left the UK. Anyway, after a personal panic attack, we did enjoy the usual China town/Little India/fruit stalls and markets of most cities. The added attraction were the famous...drumroll please...Petronas Towers!! (I'd never heard of them?) But apparently they are the second highest skyscraper landmarks in the world (once THE highest), so we woke early to join the queue for free
Petronas Pass
How retro? The pass shows how high up we were.tickets up to the 41st floor. The getting there and queuing took about 2 hours, for literally a 30 second whizz up the tower for a 10 minute stop to overlook the city. Still, it was impressive, the view was a little hazy, but it was fun and again, I have this Charlie and Great Glass Elevator similarity going on. There are no Umpla Lumpas in Kuala Lumpur though!! Ha ha, I'm too funny 😊 But we all squished into a very small lift that did seem to get smaller and watched a video on how the building of these twin towers seems to have changed peoples' lives. I feel bad as I'm still naive as to what their actual purpose is, they seem like glorified Council buildings ....but much less of an eyesore.
Anyway, onwards, to a completely different Jungle, we took a coach (which left ON time) to take us to a jetty to get a little boat to take us three hours up river into the deep jungle of the Tamran Negara National Park. It was really col, but there's no pleasing some of us, after the initial excitement of the boat trip, Tthe novelty wore off
for Sarah, as the numb bum syndrome started to come into play. After two hours it gets painful and by the third hour, trying to get off, out the boat is more of a challenge with no circulation in the legs and a heavy backpack! I loved it!
Having traipsed up a hill of 85 degrees no less, we found a little chalet with our name on it, one of the few left available and was for a bargain deal. The first day we went on the Longest Suspended Canopy Walkway which went to a hieght of 45 metres. Now, I'm not particularly fond of hieghts, we don't always get on, but I thought, it looks ok and I'm living by the rule of doing something that scares me..everyday..stupid rule but so easily done! It was a little shaky and the rope looked a little worse for wear, but across the 20 metres or so I made it,looking up and down through the treetops, accomplished to the platform, with a big beam on my face where I presumed there were ladders to get down. Little did I realise there were another 6 suspended walkways to go, each one got increasingly
higher, more rickety and unstable and downright dangerous. Why was I paying to do this? The fourth one, was literally a ladder, tied onto a bit of suspended scaffolding just roped around tree branches, with gaps where the ends of the planks didn't quite meet...I scared myself silly no end and indeed anyone walking beneath would have thought it was raining I was sweating so much! (What a beautiful picture). Brilliant though!
We then took ourelves off on the walk to the Bat Caves!! It took a good deal of walking, through the jungle,but we eventually came across the Indiana Jones Stylee opening to the cavern. Out came the torch and in we crawled, listening to any flutter of the winged beasts!! A frog caught my attention first and that was almost enough to put me off, but we'd come so far, we had to push ourseleves into the cave. The smell of bat poo is not one I'll forget and wading through drippy puddles in darkness to the small opening is one a little outside my comfort zone. Shining the torch in, we caught sight of one bat flying around, but I was reassured that they have such marvellous
sonar sense that they never bash into you. A little further we peeped (gone rather Famous Five now, I apologise) and there was loads, all hanging upside down fronm the roof of the cave. After interrupting the harmless creatures with camera flashes and torch beams, we left quite satisfied with our findings, although later we learnt the cave probably went much further back and probably only the hardcore guano collectors delve further, but we were happy.
After a hard day's walking and an evening of entertainment involving a Frenchman, German whisky and sprite?! We decided to hit the hay. Into the "bathroom" I went, just about to brush my teeth, the final part of getting ready when a treefrog leapt at me from nowhere. I held it together, but started laughing hysterically, so Sarah came in to aid, I got a small pan used for flushing the toilet with to try and scoop froggy up in, but his little feet were so sticky and he kept flying towards us. In most cases I'm fine, I don't want to appear a squeemish girly girl, but these were confined conditions and I was very barely clothed. I didn't want a frog sticking
to me. It was absolutely hilarious as Sarah then took the pan, I had my toothbrush in hand, was leaping around and laughing manically, when there was a knock at the door and German Boy came in! Indeed, he came to our rescue as he ushered the frog out of the door, by which time I found myself jumping on my bed, looking like a loon with Sarah still clutching the pan. This wouldn't have been so shameful, had we not just talked ourselves up at our European friends as to how we are able cope with most things, like cockroaches, bugs, mud and dirt etc.....and had I not been just in my vest and pants!
Our Final day in the jungle, we went off on another of out Do It Yourself jungle treks, which was going really well, until we decided to take a short cut on our way back....fatal! We took the 800m sign as a good thing, later to find out that here, everything is directed as the crow flies. The 800m was an ascent that The Grand master Hilary would have been proud to accomplish. We were saved, by ropes that you could grab onto, but
my goodness, the struggle we had to get to the top of Teresek Hill, is not one I would ever relieve, not even for the view...although it was fun in a G-I Jane kind of way, but rope burn, dizziness and nausea are never signs of a good walk are they?! Needless to say we left the Jungle well toned and detoxed and ahead of scaring myself.
Now for somewhere completely different: The Cameron Highlands, home to the tea plantations, strawberry and cream tea no less. My idea of heaven. Within an hour of arriving we had already gone to the hospital as Sarah has been nurturing some bites that have given birth to more bites, to create a superbite hybrid that pretty much was taking over her leg. She was saved, only through popping 18 pills a day! Bandaged up like a trooper, she should be ok. So we made the pilgrimage to the tea plantation..I was so excited, it was quite a walk from where the bus dropped us, but I figured it would be worh it, to see where my leafy luxury is born. Sarah, did well, plodding her fastest with her gammy leg, where we were
Sarah and her bottle baby
Sarah seemed to guard this with her life..indeed it was almost a gonner eventally turned away, right at the entrance as today of all day's was a special visitor centre opening day, so all tourists were being stoppped. In the words of Emma and Sarah, that's just typical.....I was so gutted. T o cheer ourselves up though, we had to have Afternoon tea.
With very fresh air it was chilly at night, we actually had to sleep with socks on, so decided it was time to head back to warmer climes...the reason I left England.
Final place in Malaysia-The Perhentian Islands: Kecil (the Small one), on the west coast. After lots of buses and transfers and a lychee drink I ordered that looked like a glass of eyeballs (really), we got a speed boat over to the islands. I was at the front, and after 5 minutes, realised this was very like one of those funfair rides you just want to end or get off. The waves were huge as it's only just finished monsoon season, so when we caught one, we came up and smacked back down so hard that my spine was almost pushed up and out the top of my head. So very uncomfortable, yet very amusing in a pained
kind of way. The added bonus was the incredible wind whipping at my face and sea water that drenched me, through to my pants. Mmm..so refreshing!
We were thrown out of the boat onto the shore like shipwrecked survivors, scrambling to our feet and running in search of accommodation, knowing that there were limited places all in our budgets of varying standards of comfort. We found an overnighter, knowing we would move in the morning, the guy was a little irratic and it later turned out the housekeeper pinched Sarah's watch after she's accidentally left it behind.."What a f#@!ing liberty!" Anyway, safely nestled in Lemon Grass chalets(it's as nice as it sounds) we spent a few days sunning ourselves and chilling out. We ventured to "the other side" of the island, which was a short, but intense crawl through the jungle, coming across monitor lizards and fallen trees. The islands have only just reopened for the season, so much is still in a state of development. I love that kind of a thing, why have an easy stroll, when you can make a meal of it hey?
The higlight of the Island was going on two dives. I had Sarah
as my buddy, which was really cool and indeed very handy as I have a habit of floating upwards, so she's able to grab a hold of my ankle and well
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Sheila
non-member comment
WOW!
Hi Emma, you certainly are having an adventurous journey. I have enjoyed reading about your exploits so far and look forward to hearing more. Graham sends his love as do I from sunny Wales. Sheila